New Delhi, Jan 22: Youngsters in urban India have started experiencing social-media fatigue as excess use of these sites has started telling on their mental and physical health and even their professional, academic and personal lives.
 The youngsters said they tend to log onto social networks like – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin, Myspace, Friendster, Hi5, BigAdda and others less frequently than earlier when they had initially signed up, according to a recently concluded survey carried out by apex industry body ASSOCHAM.
 The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) conducted a survey under the aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) to examine current usage trends vis-à-vis social networks among youngsters and time spent on these websites.
 Majority of all the respondents said that compulsive social networking has led to insomnia, depression, poor inter-personal relationships, lack of concentration, high level of anxiety, ignorance and rudeness in their general behavior as they tend to replace real-life social interactions with online social media.
 ASSOCHAM representatives interacted with about 2,000 youngsters (equal number of male and female) in the age group of 12 years to 25 years at urban centers of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune during the months of October 2011 to December 2011.
 “Tech overload is apparent among youth and their fixation with social media seems to be eroding as they have started focusing on more important things than grooming their digital identities,” said DS Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the survey.
 About 55 percent of all the respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced the time spent on social media websites and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favorite social networks as when they had signed up.
 Nearly 30 percent of these said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them.
 While most of the remaining said they have started maintaining a low profile on social networks as their privacy is being breached and peep in their profiles once in a blue moon.
 About 75 percent of the total sample said they had made a profile or an account on almost each of these websites which was a fad among them when these websites were just launched. But most of these said they barely use them anymore and prefer sticking to a singular site.

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